6/15/2011 Smart Answers Section II- Fingerpoiting, Voicepointing, and Headpointing.
As I was reading this section I really connected with the article. Being a kindergarten teacher I encourage my students to point to each word as they read. While reading this it confirmed everything that I have thought about fingerpoiting and its benefits. It also helped give answers that help explain to parents the benefit of using the fingerpoiting. I have had parents ask "Is it ok if my child is pointing to every word" or "Why is my child pointing to each word as they read". It would have been useful to have these great answers to give them to help them understand the benefits of it. The other aspect of this article that popped out to me was the voicepointing and how easily it is for students to do instead of fingerpointing. When the students are voicepointing they are saying each word one by one without a flow. I am seeing some of my students doing that and it takes a while to get them to break that habit. I have also caught myself doing this so that i could show the students the words that I reading one by one so that they see the concept of a word. After some practice I was able to overcome it and read with fluency. I was very happy to see this article in the Smart Answers book. It confirmed by thoughts and gave some useful hints on how to explain it to parents.
Smart Answers Section II- Reading Aloud to Students This article was very useful and confirmed my belief in read alouds. When I do read aloud time for my students they are so engaged and love to participate. This is a time that I can do an informal assessment of what I have taught them. We have talked so much about modeling for the students and the read aloud time really helps the teacher to be able to model reading for the students and the concepts of print. Under the proof it made a great statement. It said that "reading aloud to children helps them acquire vocabulary and experience events beyond limitations of their own worlds, thus making them more knowledgeable". (pg 16) . It really make me think about all of the knowledge that students can gain by a simple read aloud that might only take 5 min. That is very strong and powerful. I also think that this helps students see how much fun reading can be and encourage them to read. I have seen it several times with my own students they always want to take the book I read to them and read it. Garan also points out that a read aloud is soothing and quiets down the students and that students learn to linger, to listen, to connect and to make pictures in their own head. I see this with my students, they calm down and they really tune into what the book is about. I am happy that I can help foster the love of reading for them.
Amanda~
I enjoy your enthusiasm for reading aloud to your students. I share the same excitement! I love stopping in the middle of reading a book or when it's getting really interesting, and they moan and groan because they want me to continue reading.
I like how you stated how read aloud's offer great modeling and the use of strategies guided by the teacher. I use Text Talk, which comes with two copies of every book, the extra copy is placed in a lending library. My students love reading the books after I read aloud to them. Often times my students will return from the school library with a book I just read to them. Now that I'm thinking about it, I should observe the students when reading to see if they picked up on any strategies I use when reading.
6/17/2011 Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning - Guiding Comprehension through text frames
"Many students will tell us that their minds "wander" not "wonder" as they attempt to read materials required in our curriculum." When I read this it really made me stop and think. When I was a student in elementary school I can remember being very overwhelmed when reading the text and wondering what I was looking for and what the purpose was. This made it very hard for me to comprehend what i was reading. As I read this article I agreed with the authors that students need to have a purpose and a kind of guide line to help them when they are reading so that they can comprehend.
In the article it talked about the text frames being a structure, outline, and boundary for the text. Students need that structure and boundary to help them when they are reading so that they can be successful in reading the text and getting meaning from the text. Also in the article Buehl talked about questions within a text frame establishing a reader's frame of mind towards an assignment. He then went on to discuss metaphors that could helped the students assume the appropriate mind set. I feel that giving the text frames metaphors it will help the students remember them and it would be fun to give them little jobs as they are reading the different types of text. I can introduce my students to metaphors and give them an idea of what they are going to be looking for in the different kinds of text and use the questions as we read the story. I think that they would really like it and have fun with it. This would also prepare them to use them in the future as they continue on in their school career and by having that the students will be able to read with a purpose and comprehend more of what they read.I really liked the text frame guides for the classroom strategies as well. It was all in one place and very nicely layed out. This will be useful to go back and look at and be able to have some great strategies to use in my classroom. It made it simple and is a great guide for myself. Amanda: Your entries show a real connection between what you are reading and what you are doing in the classroom. The comment about students’ minds “wondering” really stood out for me as well! Dr. P.
6/20/2011 I REALLY enjoyed the article on guided imagery. Visualizing is always a favorite of mine to teach because the students get the chance to use thier own imagination as they listen to a piece of writing and see it in there heads. I always love to hear what they saw in their image and how the differ or are the same. While reading this article it really broke down the guided imagery and really made it a step by step process so that it is more managable to students. I also like that guided imagery/visualization can be used in any subject. In the beginning it talks about doing the "imagination tune-ups" and that this needs to happen in a progression. This really clicked for me. We do so many other things in the gradual release model that vizualization should be no different. The first step talked about making the children good observes. Once they have observed an object for a substantial amount of time they are asked to vizualize the object. This was the section of this that really stood out for me. Teaching kindergarten they need lots of models to complete tasks. This gives the students a chance to practice the vizualizing on something they just saw rather than somethign they have never seen before. I need to jumpstart their brains and really get them thinking about what is vizualization, how can i do that? I will defintely be using this article in my classroom in the fall. I think that it gives them a chance to "practice" the skill before they are expected to do it without an object infront of them. Another point that the article said that I agree with is that the studnets read with a deeper enagagement with a text and they personalize their reading through individual interpretations of how things might appear if they expirienced them. This is great because the students will be more engaged and having fun and they will learn more because they will have a better connection with the story or topic. :)
6/20/2011 Smart Answers- Section III-Phonics for older children When I first read this section of the Smart Answers book I was drawn to the first line " The federal government's research shows that phonics instruction does not help students above first grade with reading and spelling." I had never really thought about this before because in kindergarten phonics is a very big part of what we do. I really started to think about this concept and I had mixed feelings on it. I immideately thought of the studnets who struggle with the concept of phonics, wouldn't they need to continue it into 2nd and third grade if they were struggling? When we broke into the groups in class we discussed that as a group. Then as a whole group we talked about what we do in our classrooms and the trend was that in different ways all the way up to high school was teaching phonics to those struggling readers. When Dr. Paxton brought up the point that if they were struggling in elementary school and they are still struggling in high school then phonics isnt the method for them. I had never really thought about it in that context and it really opened my eyes to the fact that there are a variety of other methods that those students would use. The Smart Answers book also touched on that fact. Phonics is still taught in upper grades but it should not be the stress like it is in the lower grades. Using a variety of approaches for teh students who learn best through other methods than phonics are key so that they are not left behind.
June 21, 2011
You bring up some good points here... However, what do I do with Johnny Smith who is a slower learner? Let's say he was taught the phonics in K-1 and isn't as fast of a learner and was a little behind. Remember when Dr. Paxton talked about the little bit behind one year and continues to fall behind and becomes further and further behind as he/she goes. What are we to do with the middle school kids that have very little phonemic awareness/phonics? Our districts answer is to re-teach from step one. Do I think this is the answer? Absolutely not! Again, this falls back into the falling further and further behind. I can tell you that this is not the right answer but I cannot tell you what the correct answer is... Do we take other instruction away from these students to hone in on additional reading intervention? Do these students shut down and become so frustrated that they stop performing? The problem... There is no correct answer. Are we really putting high schoolers in Wilson Reading? Are they seriously taking the same class as some elementary students? I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Josh
6/23/11 Amanda, I also found those facts to be very interesting. I know we did discuss this further in our small group the other day but I found it interesting to know that phonics does not help students above first grade with their reading and spelling. Part of our reading block is focused on phonics only. Again, as discussed in class, some students don't need it and others may not learn with this type of instruction. I can count on my hand the number of students who did not learn best with the phonics instruction. It is sad that districts are required to teach everyone the same skills regardless of whether or not they need it. I knew teaching my "whole group" phonics lesson was not helping those who were struggling with the basics and those who were way beyond this method of instruction but I had to teach them this way. I did differentiate in small groups but what a waste of time. I am excited to begin Words Their Way. I am hoping this will help with these frustrations. Julie
6/24/2011 In the literacy lessons books they talked about comprehension beach balls. I had bought beach balls last year and wasnt sure how to venture into them or how to use it in the small group without them going crazy, and I put them aside for safe keeping. After reading this it made me want to get the beach balls out and try them for this upcoming school year. It is nice because we can motify it to the way that we want it. I feel that this would help the students to have some higher level thinking too based on the questions that I put on there for them. I also liked the ReQuest. Although it might be hard for kindergarten I think it is very important for me to teach them how to ask questions pertaining to reading. I think that after alot of modeling they would be able to take on this task.
6/27/2011 When i was reading Chapter 5 in the Literacy Lessons book I really liked the section on games as a motivational tool. I never thought to play those games in my classroom. The students would be "tricked into" playing the games and learning useful tools. The other aspect of the section that I liked was when they said to teach families how to use the games effectively in everyday expiriences. This was really eye opening, this is something the students can do at home and be successful at it. Getting families involved is another great way to motivate students to learn. If they see their family having fun, they are going to want to do the same.
6/28/11 I agree with you. I thought the section on using board games as motivation and reinforcement was really interesting. Even at the upper grade levels, I think the students would really enjoy them and would be tricked into learning. Getting the rest of their families involved would be the difficult part for me, because normally my students don't seem to get a lot of support at home but it is worth a try! Caitlin
6/28/11
I found this section helpful and interesting as well. I really like the idea of making connections with the use of computer games/software and the internet to get children more interested in topics/themes that will be studied in the classroom. The tips for literacy instruction for each of the games make them educational and fun!
Molly
Amanda – Well thought out post! It led to a great follow-up comment from Caitlin, too. Dr. P.
6/29/11 Literacy Lessons Chapter 6 I liked the section on Choral Reading With Big Books. I am fortunate enought to have big books avaliable to me to use for most of the stories that we read in Kindergarten. This really would help the students during choral reading because they could actually see the words on the page and would be able to read the words that they already know. It also talked about readers benefiting from choral reading from a big book, and it brought up ELL studenets gaining from it. After our discussion today I really agree with that statement after hearing our presentation today. It would be a great way for those students to see the print in big text and be able to connect with it. It would benefit all of the students as well.Another benefit would be modeling the tracking for them while using the big book. I am excited to go back to school and try choral reading with the big book.
6-30-11
Amanda,
I love using big books in class too, especially if a book has neat illustrations. I liked the section on choral reading as well because while I use big books, I never realized all the instructional implications using big books can have. I think that I'll try choral reading with big books this year as well. It is really difficult to model concepts about print with 'regular' sized print and since many classic books are available im big book format, this is a great way to incorporate those skills into whatever your main lesson focus is.
-Leah
7/1/2011
Chapter 6- Literacy Lessons
The section on the difference between buddy and paired reading was very useful. I think there are times when I interchange them and use them as one(paired reading).I want to incorporte buddy reading into my guided reading time more. The students really love to read and I think this would be a great time to let students choose a buddy and read to them. I also like the aspect of them giving them feedback. Although this would take alot of modeling on my part it would be very useful and it would get the students thinknig about what they do when they read and what makes a good reader good.
I also liked the radio reading. The students love to pick up a book and read when they are in kindergarten. I would like to use this starting with my high groups (their books allow more for a narrative focus and have more meat to them) and introducing them to how a good reader reads feelings and such. I think this would be a great project to start and then they could share there tapes withe the 1st graders they read to or other reading groups.
7/5
Amanda,
I also liked the idea of radio reading. I will definitely use this with students who need more practice in fluency and intonation as a way for students to read and really hear themselves as readers when playing the recording back. Just as students don't necessarily pay atttention to comprehension when they struggle with decoding, they also may not hear and really realize how choppy their phrasing is, or how odd their sentences sound when punctuation is left out. As students are allowed to listen to recordings of themselves reading, they may be able to pick up on these types of errors. Then students can be given the opportunity to practice reading their story to peers and parents, and then finally rerecord the story at a later date. I might also use radio reading in writer's workshop as an incentive to take a piece of writing to the publishing phase. Students will really view themselves as authors if they can then add a copy of their story and a recording of it to a listening center for other students to enjoy.
-Rachael
6/15/2011
Smart Answers Section II- Fingerpoiting, Voicepointing, and Headpointing.
As I was reading this section I really connected with the article. Being a kindergarten teacher I encourage my students to point to each word as they read. While reading this it confirmed everything that I have thought about fingerpoiting and its benefits. It also helped give answers that help explain to parents the benefit of using the fingerpoiting. I have had parents ask "Is it ok if my child is pointing to every word" or "Why is my child pointing to each word as they read". It would have been useful to have these great answers to give them to help them understand the benefits of it. The other aspect of this article that popped out to me was the voicepointing and how easily it is for students to do instead of fingerpointing. When the students are voicepointing they are saying each word one by one without a flow. I am seeing some of my students doing that and it takes a while to get them to break that habit. I have also caught myself doing this so that i could show the students the words that I reading one by one so that they see the concept of a word. After some practice I was able to overcome it and read with fluency. I was very happy to see this article in the Smart Answers book. It confirmed by thoughts and gave some useful hints on how to explain it to parents.
Smart Answers Section II- Reading Aloud to Students
This article was very useful and confirmed my belief in read alouds. When I do read aloud time for my students they are so engaged and love to participate. This is a time that I can do an informal assessment of what I have taught them. We have talked so much about modeling for the students and the read aloud time really helps the teacher to be able to model reading for the students and the concepts of print. Under the proof it made a great statement. It said that "reading aloud to children helps them acquire vocabulary and experience events beyond limitations of their own worlds, thus making them more knowledgeable". (pg 16) . It really make me think about all of the knowledge that students can gain by a simple read aloud that might only take 5 min. That is very strong and powerful. I also think that this helps students see how much fun reading can be and encourage them to read. I have seen it several times with my own students they always want to take the book I read to them and read it. Garan also points out that a read aloud is soothing and quiets down the students and that students learn to linger, to listen, to connect and to make pictures in their own head. I see this with my students, they calm down and they really tune into what the book is about. I am happy that I can help foster the love of reading for them.
Amanda~
I enjoy your enthusiasm for reading aloud to your students. I share the same excitement! I love stopping in the middle of reading a book or when it's getting really interesting, and they moan and groan because they want me to continue reading.
I like how you stated how read aloud's offer great modeling and the use of strategies guided by the teacher. I use Text Talk, which comes with two copies of every book, the extra copy is placed in a lending library. My students love reading the books after I read aloud to them. Often times my students will return from the school library with a book I just read to them. Now that I'm thinking about it, I should observe the students when reading to see if they picked up on any strategies I use when reading.
6/17/2011
Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning - Guiding Comprehension through text frames
"Many students will tell us that their minds "wander" not "wonder" as they attempt to read materials required in our curriculum." When I read this it really made me stop and think. When I was a student in elementary school I can remember being very overwhelmed when reading the text and wondering what I was looking for and what the purpose was. This made it very hard for me to comprehend what i was reading. As I read this article I agreed with the authors that students need to have a purpose and a kind of guide line to help them when they are reading so that they can comprehend.
In the article it talked about the text frames being a structure, outline, and boundary for the text. Students need that structure and boundary to help them when they are reading so that they can be successful in reading the text and getting meaning from the text. Also in the article Buehl talked about questions within a text frame establishing a reader's frame of mind towards an assignment. He then went on to discuss metaphors that could helped the students assume the appropriate mind set. I feel that giving the text frames metaphors it will help the students remember them and it would be fun to give them little jobs as they are reading the different types of text. I can introduce my students to metaphors and give them an idea of what they are going to be looking for in the different kinds of text and use the questions as we read the story. I think that they would really like it and have fun with it. This would also prepare them to use them in the future as they continue on in their school career and by having that the students will be able to read with a purpose and comprehend more of what they read.I really liked the text frame guides for the classroom strategies as well. It was all in one place and very nicely layed out. This will be useful to go back and look at and be able to have some great strategies to use in my classroom. It made it simple and is a great guide for myself.
Amanda: Your entries show a real connection between what you are reading and what you are doing in the classroom. The comment about students’ minds “wondering” really stood out for me as well! Dr. P.
6/20/2011
I REALLY enjoyed the article on guided imagery. Visualizing is always a favorite of mine to teach because the students get the chance to use thier own imagination as they listen to a piece of writing and see it in there heads. I always love to hear what they saw in their image and how the differ or are the same. While reading this article it really broke down the guided imagery and really made it a step by step process so that it is more managable to students. I also like that guided imagery/visualization can be used in any subject. In the beginning it talks about doing the "imagination tune-ups" and that this needs to happen in a progression. This really clicked for me. We do so many other things in the gradual release model that vizualization should be no different. The first step talked about making the children good observes. Once they have observed an object for a substantial amount of time they are asked to vizualize the object. This was the section of this that really stood out for me. Teaching kindergarten they need lots of models to complete tasks. This gives the students a chance to practice the vizualizing on something they just saw rather than somethign they have never seen before. I need to jumpstart their brains and really get them thinking about what is vizualization, how can i do that? I will defintely be using this article in my classroom in the fall. I think that it gives them a chance to "practice" the skill before they are expected to do it without an object infront of them. Another point that the article said that I agree with is that the studnets read with a deeper enagagement with a text and they personalize their reading through individual interpretations of how things might appear if they expirienced them. This is great because the students will be more engaged and having fun and they will learn more because they will have a better connection with the story or topic. :)
6/20/2011
Smart Answers- Section III-Phonics for older children
When I first read this section of the Smart Answers book I was drawn to the first line " The federal government's research shows that phonics instruction does not help students above first grade with reading and spelling." I had never really thought about this before because in kindergarten phonics is a very big part of what we do. I really started to think about this concept and I had mixed feelings on it. I immideately thought of the studnets who struggle with the concept of phonics, wouldn't they need to continue it into 2nd and third grade if they were struggling? When we broke into the groups in class we discussed that as a group. Then as a whole group we talked about what we do in our classrooms and the trend was that in different ways all the way up to high school was teaching phonics to those struggling readers. When Dr. Paxton brought up the point that if they were struggling in elementary school and they are still struggling in high school then phonics isnt the method for them. I had never really thought about it in that context and it really opened my eyes to the fact that there are a variety of other methods that those students would use. The Smart Answers book also touched on that fact. Phonics is still taught in upper grades but it should not be the stress like it is in the lower grades. Using a variety of approaches for teh students who learn best through other methods than phonics are key so that they are not left behind.
June 21, 2011
You bring up some good points here... However, what do I do with Johnny Smith who is a slower learner? Let's say he was taught the phonics in K-1 and isn't as fast of a learner and was a little behind. Remember when Dr. Paxton talked about the little bit behind one year and continues to fall behind and becomes further and further behind as he/she goes. What are we to do with the middle school kids that have very little phonemic awareness/phonics? Our districts answer is to re-teach from step one. Do I think this is the answer? Absolutely not! Again, this falls back into the falling further and further behind. I can tell you that this is not the right answer but I cannot tell you what the correct answer is... Do we take other instruction away from these students to hone in on additional reading intervention? Do these students shut down and become so frustrated that they stop performing? The problem... There is no correct answer. Are we really putting high schoolers in Wilson Reading? Are they seriously taking the same class as some elementary students? I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Josh
6/23/11
Amanda, I also found those facts to be very interesting. I know we did discuss this further in our small group the other day but I found it interesting to know that phonics does not help students above first grade with their reading and spelling. Part of our reading block is focused on phonics only. Again, as discussed in class, some students don't need it and others may not learn with this type of instruction. I can count on my hand the number of students who did not learn best with the phonics instruction. It is sad that districts are required to teach everyone the same skills regardless of whether or not they need it. I knew teaching my "whole group" phonics lesson was not helping those who were struggling with the basics and those who were way beyond this method of instruction but I had to teach them this way. I did differentiate in small groups but what a waste of time. I am excited to begin Words Their Way. I am hoping this will help with these frustrations.
Julie
6/24/2011
In the literacy lessons books they talked about comprehension beach balls. I had bought beach balls last year and wasnt sure how to venture into them or how to use it in the small group without them going crazy, and I put them aside for safe keeping. After reading this it made me want to get the beach balls out and try them for this upcoming school year. It is nice because we can motify it to the way that we want it. I feel that this would help the students to have some higher level thinking too based on the questions that I put on there for them. I also liked the ReQuest. Although it might be hard for kindergarten I think it is very important for me to teach them how to ask questions pertaining to reading. I think that after alot of modeling they would be able to take on this task.
6/27/2011
When i was reading Chapter 5 in the Literacy Lessons book I really liked the section on games as a motivational tool. I never thought to play those games in my classroom. The students would be "tricked into" playing the games and learning useful tools. The other aspect of the section that I liked was when they said to teach families how to use the games effectively in everyday expiriences. This was really eye opening, this is something the students can do at home and be successful at it. Getting families involved is another great way to motivate students to learn. If they see their family having fun, they are going to want to do the same.
6/28/11
I agree with you. I thought the section on using board games as motivation and reinforcement was really interesting. Even at the upper grade levels, I think the students would really enjoy them and would be tricked into learning. Getting the rest of their families involved would be the difficult part for me, because normally my students don't seem to get a lot of support at home but it is worth a try!
Caitlin
6/28/11
I found this section helpful and interesting as well. I really like the idea of making connections with the use of computer games/software and the internet to get children more interested in topics/themes that will be studied in the classroom. The tips for literacy instruction for each of the games make them educational and fun!
Molly
Amanda – Well thought out post! It led to a great follow-up comment from Caitlin, too. Dr. P.
6/29/11
Literacy Lessons Chapter 6
I liked the section on Choral Reading With Big Books. I am fortunate enought to have big books avaliable to me to use for most of the stories that we read in Kindergarten. This really would help the students during choral reading because they could actually see the words on the page and would be able to read the words that they already know. It also talked about readers benefiting from choral reading from a big book, and it brought up ELL studenets gaining from it. After our discussion today I really agree with that statement after hearing our presentation today. It would be a great way for those students to see the print in big text and be able to connect with it. It would benefit all of the students as well.Another benefit would be modeling the tracking for them while using the big book. I am excited to go back to school and try choral reading with the big book.
6-30-11
Amanda,
I love using big books in class too, especially if a book has neat illustrations. I liked the section on choral reading as well because while I use big books, I never realized all the instructional implications using big books can have. I think that I'll try choral reading with big books this year as well. It is really difficult to model concepts about print with 'regular' sized print and since many classic books are available im big book format, this is a great way to incorporate those skills into whatever your main lesson focus is.
-Leah
7/1/2011
Chapter 6- Literacy Lessons
The section on the difference between buddy and paired reading was very useful. I think there are times when I interchange them and use them as one(paired reading).I want to incorporte buddy reading into my guided reading time more. The students really love to read and I think this would be a great time to let students choose a buddy and read to them. I also like the aspect of them giving them feedback. Although this would take alot of modeling on my part it would be very useful and it would get the students thinknig about what they do when they read and what makes a good reader good.
I also liked the radio reading. The students love to pick up a book and read when they are in kindergarten. I would like to use this starting with my high groups (their books allow more for a narrative focus and have more meat to them) and introducing them to how a good reader reads feelings and such. I think this would be a great project to start and then they could share there tapes withe the 1st graders they read to or other reading groups.
7/5
Amanda,
I also liked the idea of radio reading. I will definitely use this with students who need more practice in fluency and intonation as a way for students to read and really hear themselves as readers when playing the recording back. Just as students don't necessarily pay atttention to comprehension when they struggle with decoding, they also may not hear and really realize how choppy their phrasing is, or how odd their sentences sound when punctuation is left out. As students are allowed to listen to recordings of themselves reading, they may be able to pick up on these types of errors. Then students can be given the opportunity to practice reading their story to peers and parents, and then finally rerecord the story at a later date. I might also use radio reading in writer's workshop as an incentive to take a piece of writing to the publishing phase. Students will really view themselves as authors if they can then add a copy of their story and a recording of it to a listening center for other students to enjoy.
-Rachael